A Summer Apart
by raspberrycheesecake
Summary: Following the events of the season 1 finale, Karma and Amy haven't spoken all summer and are starting a new school year apart. Now, starting their junior year, a new girl at school provides a potential distraction for Amy.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: This is my first 'Faking It' fanfiction. I hope you enjoy it.**

**Disclaimer: The plot and my original character(s) are mine; the rest belongs to MTV's 'Faking It'.**

**This will be finale-compliant, so there will be spoilers for the whole of Season 1. **

Emilia

"Come on Mils, it won't be that bad. Hester's supposed to be an excellent school and I'm sure you'll make friends in no time." I raised an eyebrow at my brother. "They're so much more accepting than Stevenson high. I heard they even had two girls as homecoming queens so you'll fit right in."

"Yes, because my sexual orientation is the only important thing about me." I quipped. I loved my brother and appreciated how hard he was trying, but nothing he said was going to make me want to get out of the car.

"I suppose we could just turn around and go home to tell the parents that you want to go back to Stevenson." Well, anything except maybe that. I looked at him and he was grinning at me, knowing he'd won this argument. I grabbed my bag from the back seat, making sure I hit him with it, and got out of the car.

I shut the car door and heard him start singing to some awful pop song as he drove off. Throwing my backpack over my shoulder, I took a deep breath and started walking up the steps to the front door.

I look around me and see a few people looking at me. This high school is small compared to my last one, so I guess everyone knows everyone else here and has already realised I was new. Lowering my head, I upped my pace and headed straight through the door, down the corridor and into the small reception area. Nobody was at the desk so I sat and waited.

I see posters all over the walls of two girls. The homecoming queens. Matt was right, this school had had two girls. I guess they were more accepting than Stevenson, or I hoped, at least. I heard a door open to my left and see a man walk in. "You must be Emilia Davis-Sutton, yes?"

"I just go by Millie, actually" I had always hated my full name; it always sounded so pretentious when anybody said it. I grabbed my bag as I stood up.

"Very well, Millie. I'm Mr. Griffiths. I have here your schedule and a school map" He said, handing me a small pile of papers. "We usually try not to escort new students everywhere too much, that way no more attention is drawn to then than necessary. Though, we are more than happy to assign you a buddy, if you'd prefer."

"No thank-you, I'll be fine. I've never really been one for company anyway." I told him, as I began to study my map, hoping I wouldn't have to use it too much today.

"Very well, Millie, welcome to Hester."

Amy

"Are you two still not talking?" Oliver asked, as he came over to join me on the grass. I shook my head in response, there wasn't really much I could say. Karma and I hadn't spoken since my mum's wedding; almost 2 months now. It was the longest amount of time we'd ever been out of contact. For the first time since Kindergarten I'd had to start a new school year without my best friend.

"She hasn't contacted me all summer, a lot went down at the wedding and I think we both needed to cool off." I say. I've avoided thinking about the wedding ever since it happened, especially the morning after, where I woke up in bed with Liam Booker. I've never been more disgusted with myself; just thinking about it makes me sick to my stomach.

"Amy? Are you coming?" I look around to see that Oliver has stood up and is heading inside. "The bell has already gone, we need to go in." I look around the school grounds, in hope of seeing Karma, but she's obviously already gone in. She wouldn't miss the first day back, would she?

"Yeah, I'm coming." I say, picking up my bag. "I just zoned out for a second there, sorry."

Taking another look behind me, at the now empty grounds, I head inside.

Karma

I wake up to the sound of my alarm beeping at me. I open my eyes and see 7:00am displayed on the clock. I hit snooze, roll back over and go straight back to sleep.

15 minutes later, my alarm wakes me up again. Snooze.

Another 15 minutes passes and I realise I need to start getting ready if I want to be at school on time. Snooze.

Rolling over, I see the sun streaming through my window so bright that it hurts my eyes. I struggle to read the time on my clock. I turn it around so I can see it more clearly. It's 8:00am. I slept through the alarm.

"Shit!" I jump out of bed and run to my wardrobe, grab the first thing I see and throw it on. I quickly put some foundation on, and then I add a bit of mascara and lipstick. I take my bag off the hook and throw it over my shoulder, run down the stairs and out of the door before my parents can say anything.

I get to the bus stop as my bus pulls away. I try waving, to draw the attention of the driver, despite knowing that it's useless.

I know Amy will think I've ditched now, she'll never forgive me. I pull out my phone, and put in her number but I can't bring myself to press call. We haven't talked all summer; I don't know what I'd even say to her.

Scrolling down my contacts, I stop at Liam's number. He can drive; maybe he'd give me a ride. I laugh at the thought. Of course he wouldn't, he hasn't spoken to me for weeks either. I look at the name above his. I really don't want to call them but it's my only option. I click the contact and dial.

Lauren

"You have got some fucking nerve. What the fuck do you want?" I ask, as I answer the phone.

"I missed the bus and I could really do with a ride." Karma whines down the phone.

"So, you think you can treat Amy like that, not speak to her for months and then call her STEP-sister and beg for a fucking ride?! You are out of your mind." I yell at her down the phone.

"She told you what happened?" Karma sounds shocked; not that I'm surprised.

"Don't be so fucking ridiculous, of course she didn't, that would be betraying you; which, from what I hear, is your job, not hers. I was eavesdropping and, might I just say, you are truly a pathetic bitch."

"Since when do you care about Amy anyway?" She asks.

"I don't, but she's family now, and families stick together. 'Cause clearly friends don't." I reply, my voice dripping with disdain. "I'll be at the bus stop in 10 minutes. As, believe it or not, I am a better person than you are." I end the call and finish eating my cereal.

"Where's Amy this morning?" My dad asks, as he walks into the room.

"She already left, she got the bus." I tell him.

"Didn't you offer her a lift in your new car?" He questions.

"She'd up and gone before I even got the chance. I think she was hoping to see Karma on the bus, though I doubt that'll be happening." I say, as I grab my stuff. My dad doesn't reply; he's too engrossed in his paperwork.

I head out to the driveway, jump in my car, put on some music and head off to pick up Karma.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Thank-you so much for all the positive response on my first chapter, it really keeps me motivated! **

**I wanted to say straight away that the majority of my chapters will be quite short, meaning I can update more frequently, 'cause I know a lot of fics take ages to update because they have extremely long chapters.**

Amy

I'd been staring at the whiteboard for 10minutes and still hadn't actually managed to read what was written on it. My mind was drifting again, going back over the night of the wedding. The way I had thrown myself at Liam and he'd stopped me, reminding me that I did in fact have feelings for Karma. I told him I didn't care, and apparently he didn't either. My inner romantic wished losing my virginity was like it is in movies; the realist in me continued to remind me that it is never actually like that.

A knock on the classroom door brought my attention back to the room; I looked up in hopes of it being Karma. No such luck. Instead, it was a girl I'd never seen before. This must be the new girl that Oliver had told me about earlier, news travels fast around here.

She went over to the teacher and spoke to him before he directed her to a seat, the seat right next to me, Karma's seat. I must have let on that I was shocked because before she'd even moved she took one look at me and turned back to the teacher and I heard her ask if there was anywhere else she could sit.

Clearly the answer to that question was no, because not 20 seconds later her books and pens were on her new desk and she was taking notes from the whiteboard; the whiteboard that I still hadn't read.

As I started to copy from the board my mind began to wonder again, back to the wedding; going over every moment in excruciating detail. Every touch, every kiss, every sudden feeling of anger mixed with guilt.

Somebody tapped my shoulder; I looked up to see the new girl looking expectantly at me. "Sorry, what did you say?"

She smiled. She had great teeth. "_I _never said anything." She replied, raising an eyebrow. She then looked to the front of the classroom and pointed to the teacher. "_He_, however, said it's time to hand in our work because it's the end of the lesson."

It was the end of the lesson already? How was that possible? I couldn't have been sat here for an hour, surely. I looked at my work. 'Oh no', I thought. Not only had I spent the last hour reliving the worst decision I'd ever made, I'd also wrote it down for anyone to see.

Shit.

I crumpled up the paper as small as I could and threw it in the bin. My teacher looked at me and held out his hand, waiting for me to hand in my work. I didn't know what excuse I could use, so I just shrugged my shoulders, smiled and left the classroom without another word.

Karma

"Thank-you so much for the ride." I said, as I collected my things, climbed out of the car .and shut the door.

"Yeah, yeah, just go already!" She told me, as she pulled away and into the parking lot. She'd said she didn't want to be seen having anything to do with me, and had therefore suggested that she drop me off before going to park the car.

I walked straight into the building and down the hall, towards my first class of the day. As I got there, I looked inside the door and saw Amy. My heart swelled. I was so afraid seeing her would be weird, but here she was. My best friend. That was when I saw the girl in the seat next to her. My seat. Had Amy replaced me?

I couldn't bring myself to go into the classroom, so I headed to the only place I could think of. Woodwork.

He was working on something when I got into the room it was loud so he hadn't heard my come in. I waited patiently for him to look up. Suddenly, he stopped what he was doing and I could see his gaze staring at my legs. It wasn't a sexual stare, more like he was questioning whether or not he could actually bring himself to look at my face. He turned the tool he was using off but did not move. I saw him swallow, like he wanted to say something but couldn't find the words.

After what felt like an eternity, he lifted his face and met my gaze. It only lasted a few seconds, though, before he looked up to the ceiling and inhaled deeply. Yet those few seconds were more than long enough; I could see it in his eyes. The only question left was what did Liam Booker feel so guilty about?

Emilia

I don't know what made me do it. I guess you could say I was intrigued. Intrigued by what could drive a girl who had spent 45 minutes solid writing several sides of paper to throw away all of her work and walk out. What could she have possibly written that was so terrible that she had to get rid of it so suddenly?

I knew it was wrong and definitely a bad idea as soon as I saw the crumpled paper in the bin. Yet I couldn't stop myself. I reached into the bin, took the paper and shoved it in my bag, hoping that I would be able to convince myself not to open it.

Waiting for my teacher to arrive in my next class was boring and lonely; everyone here knew each other and were all catching up or just generally talking. I sat there silently and tried to be patient, but the paper in my bag was calling me name. Just a peek at it couldn't possibly hurt anyone, right? I reached into my bag and grabbed it.

"Hi, I'm Shane. You're the new girl, right? Emily, or Emilia or something like that?" Some guy with black hair, who was sat on the desk in front of me, asked. From the looks of him, he was your stereotypical gay male.

"Yeah, that's me, call me Millie." I told him, attempting to return the enormous, if not slightly creepy grin that he was throwing my way.

"Well, Millie, it's _amazing_ to meet you. I'll be your guide for the rest of the day. Let me see your schedule." He held out his hand and I handed it over. "Hmm, good, nope, yes, absolutely not." He muttered to himself whilst looking at the classes I was taking. "You're taking biology _and _chemistry?" He asked, looking utterly surprised.

"Yeah, so?" I questioned, as I snatched my timetable back off of him.

"No reason." He said, sliding off of the desk and into his seat as the teacher entered the room.

Lauren

"You left rather early this morning." I say to Amy as I fall into step beside her. She looks stressed out, even more so than usual.

"I had to catch the bus; some of us actually want to turn up on time." She replied, clearly throwing a dig at me for my late arrival this morning.

"Pfft! More like some of us want to see Karma so badly they'll get up early, in hopes of her being on the bus. Then getting worked up over the fact that she wasn't." I remark.

Amy stops in her tracks. "How did _you _know she wasn't on the bus this morning?"

"Because she called me and asked for a ride." I reply, nonchalantly.

"And you gave her one?! Do you seriously give that little of a shit about how much she hurt me? About what she did?"

"Really? You're going to whine about what _she _did? What about what _you _did?"

"What's that supposed to mean?!" She looks shocked, yet the guilt creeps through on her face.

"Amy! We live in the same house, for fuck's sake." I reply, frustrated that she truly believes I am that oblivious to other people.

She grabs my arm and drags me into the girl's toilet, checking each stall to ensure that there's nobody else in here. When she's mad sure, she turns to me. "What's that supposed to mean '_We live together_'?"

"It means I know what goes on in a house I live in."

"Yeah, so? We all know what goes on in our own houses; that has got nothing to do with any of this." She says, her voice shaking.

"Oh really? So that wasn't Liam Booker that I saw leaving your bedroom the morning after the wedding?" I ask, as Amy goes from looking shocked, to looking angry then looking ashamed.

"Would you believe me if I told you nothing happened?" She asked, already knowing the answer.

"Well, no, because you'd be lying." I reply.

"Karma can never find out, please." She begs, on the verge of crying. She looks truly terrified at the thought of losing her friend.

"Do I look like a fucking idiot? Just don't sit there and moan about what she's done to you when you've done that behind her back." I say as I leave the toilet.


End file.
